In a previous post, we looked at whether CBD can make you fail a drug test. On a related note, the question came up of whether products to pass a drug test really work. In this post we briefly explain what the science says about the effectiveness of these “cleansing” products.
What are products to pass a drug test?
There are various types of products that promise to help you pass drug tests, from “detox” liquids and pills to gadgets with synthetic urine. Each of these products works in its own way, often involving dilution or masking. But do they really work?
How effective are products to pass a drug test?
On the internet, it is easy to find several types of products that supposedly let you get a negative result on a drug test, whether urine or saliva. Broadly speaking, we can distinguish between:
Saliva cleansers
These are products designed to temporarily eliminate traces of substances in saliva that can be detected in drug tests. They usually come in the form of a spray.
There is no scientific evidence of their efficacy. In any case, for physiological reasons, any supposed efficacy would only last a few seconds after use. Saliva tests are mainly used in roadside drug testing, so they are unlikely to be of any use in practice, since the officer is present throughout the process.
Urine cleansers
These are products taken orally that claim to speed up the elimination of drugs. This idea has no basis, since under normal conditions the speed at which a drug is eliminated from the body depends on a series of pharmacological parameters that cannot be influenced.
In this respect, the only possible strategy is the use of diuretics: drugs that increase the volume of urine and could dilute the concentration of cannabis below the detection limit.
Two points should be made here. Firstly, the use of diuretics (especially of unknown origin, composition and quantity) can have serious health consequences. Secondly, urine drug tests are always accompanied by a basic urinalysis, which would be clearly altered by the use of diuretics (1).
Other “urine cleansers” are products added to the sample that alter cannabis metabolites until they become undetectable. They are effective, but have the same drawbacks as those just mentioned: changes in parameters such as pH, specific gravity or protein in the urine would make the attempted fraud obvious (1, 2).
The only reliable way to cheat a urine drug test, even in the most extreme circumstances (court-approved testing includes directly observing the person urinating as the sample is taken), is to use synthetic urine kits.
The bottom line is that most products that promise to help you test negative on a drug test offer no guarantees and, in many cases, can be detected by laboratories. Although some products may temporarily reduce the concentration of drugs in the body, the effectiveness is not assured, and the chance of being caught is high.
References
- Raouf M, Bettinger JJ, Fudin J. A Practical Guide to Urine Drug Monitoring. Fed Pract. 2018 Apr;35(4):38-44. PMID: 30766353; PMCID: PMC6368048.
- Jaffee WB, Trucco E, Levy S, Weiss RD. Is this urine really negative? A systematic review of tampering methods in urine drug screening and testing. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2007 Jul;33(1):33-42. doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2006.11.008. Epub 2007 Jan 16. PMID: 17588487.
